Warwickslade headwaters

 

Throughout our current dry spell the headwaters of Warwickslade Brook have remained lush and green. I'm certain there are spots dotted about the forest which must constitute Temperate Rainforest, or at least adjacent.

Forest gate

 

A hairy forest gate. Although as far as I gather not classified as Temperate rainforest, pockets of the New Forest can exhibit some similar features. Thick moss covers trunk and bough, and lichens hangs thickly from branches and woodland furniture. Pockets of fairytale woodland hollow are common. It's an aspect of the forest I've seen develop over the years, maybe associated with the restoration of the forests streams and subsequently a wetter forest.

Lichen and moss

The canopy's gone revealing an easily overlooked, or at least ignored, aspect of the forest, and remnant of its' ancient past. You'll notice now the woods are naked, especially when it's wet, that many of the forests' trunks, boughs and branches, down to its' smallest, are either covered in myriad variety of vibrant green mosses or appear to have a grey green hue to them, the consequence of a wide range of lichens. Both moss and lichen are members of the forests' non-vascular plant community, their presence hereabouts a reminder of the temperate rainforest which was once common around Britains' Atlantic coast. Temperate rainforest isn't just rare, it takes rare to the limit with only 1% of it remaining worldwide. Strongholds of temperate rainforest in England are in the south west and north west; in the south west places like Cornwall, Dartmoor and Exmoor, and in the north west, places like the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. So we're lucky to have elements of it here.